Mar 21, 2012
Match 02 This Match was full of controversies. The series was almost abandoned midway due to conflicts between the players. The Rage (Alliance) started short handed in game 1 playing with 3 players versus 4 for the Angers (United). Despite being short handed, the Rage won this game by score of 5 to 2. Veer Hitt and Justin Wong contributed 2 goals each, with Kobe adding a goal of his own. Eric joins the Rage as their 4th member for game 2. One would think that if the Rage could win short handed, then 4 vs 4 would be of lesser challenge, but they were wrong. The Angers went on to shutout the Rage by 5-0. Raj Kumar and Sandeep Kumar scored 2 each, as Geoffrey Chan got one as well. Game 3 had a lot of controversies. The Rage player, Kobe, got knocked down by Raj, as he contiuned to play on and scored. There were two sides to the story. The Angers claimed that Kobe is a weak player and simply fell on a small shoulder to shoulder bump. The Rage thought it was a personal foul. This led to a stoppage in play and Raj was furious at the stoppage and called Kobe a cry baby and suggested that he watch "International Soccer" to see how the game is played. Raj continued to verbally attack Kobe and his toughness, but despite this, Kobe stayed in the game even with an emotional scar he received from all the taunting. There was even a moment where Sandeep was about to walk out of the rink. This would have marked his 3rd time in his career where he would have walked out, but he ended up staying afterward. The game continued and there was another altercation. At the Rage goal line, Eric was called for an handball and thus an automatic goal was rewarded for the Angers. The Angers believed the ball would have gone in, however, the Rage disputed that the handball was from a body protection. Despite this, the goal was given in the end. The Rage went on to win the game to hold a 2-1 lead in the series. Game 4 was a hard fought match, but once again, there were disputes. Veer took a shot and it appeared as if Daisee blocked the ball with his hand. Veer was protesting for an automatic goal or atleast a free kick, however, both were denied. On the ensuing end, Sandeep took advantage of this and scored the goal while the entire Rage team were offguard waiting for a call on the prior handball. The Rage argued that there should been a stoppage in play, but once again, another call went aganist them. This was a hard fought game where the Rage had a 3-1 lead at one point, but the Angers went on to win 5-3, taking the series by 3 games to 1. The defense was a big let down for the Rage. Eric was terrible guarding the net. His linemate, Kobe, showed lack of motivation and hustle. The two of them were a big reason why the Rage lost today. Veer wasn't his usual self today as he was playing forward and he wasn't getting many ball touches because Kobe and Eric simply seemed clueless as times. Veer was held scoreless in two games today, which is rare. Veer has been known to play on defense and rush the ball foward, but today, he couldn't utilize his speed since he was stationed at the front end. Justin carried the Rage in game 4 with great effort on both the defensive and offensive end, but wasn't able to earn the victory, as Eric let in poor long range goals. The Angers had all the calls go in their favour and as a result of Kobe's handball controversies, the MRSC officials are analyzing the handball rule and will implement new rules in further detail, effective immediately in future games. Raj once again proved why he is the most feared player in MRSC with his skill and aggressive style. He led all scorers with 8 goals today. He remains as the top scorer with 19 goals now. Sandeep had some timely goals as well, and Geoffrey was on his "A" game today. It was a good overall performance by the Angers. Scoresheet * If necessary Game Statistics Games played | Goals | Goals per game